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Review: Lest We Drift

Lest We Drift book cover on blue background

I rarely purchase new releases from Christian bookstores unless I've read the author before, so I was really basing this purchase on what I saw other reviewers share. Lest We Drift by Jared C. Wilson did intrigue me with its premise, but it's a lesson I've learnt for the future where I will try to better gauge whether I'm the right audience before buying a book I'll likely pass along to others.

Book Synopsis

How do we keep from drifting away from what makes us who we are? How do we even know we're drifting?

In this provocative new book, Jared C. Wilson discusses the potentials and problems with evangelical departures from gospel-centrality. In a variety of ways, on both "the left" and "the right," Wilson outlines these threats from angles sometimes imperceptible at first glance.

As you read Lest We Drift, you will recognize the signs of drift in the faith and teaching, and learn to navigate the five particular dangers prevalent in the church today:

  • persecution complex
  • spiritual dryness
  • superficial faith
  • attractional pragmatism
  • cultural legalism

With biblical wisdom and cultural insight, this book will help you identify these potential hazards in your own Christian life and church; becoming better alert to the need to "pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it" (Heb. 2:1).

Source: Amazon

Book Thoughts

This is a book that I was excited to pick up based on the reviews I saw, so it is unfortunate that it didn't quite hit the mark for me. Saying that, the structure of this book is solid. I agree with the descriptions of the five ways that Christians can depart from the true Gospel and think it's an excellent framework to work through, especially when evaluating the teachings of our churches. I appreciated learning more about the fallacies that are easy to fall into, and what can cause Christians to drift into victimhood, dryness, superficiality, pragmatism, or legalism, making us more alert as to what could make our ministries falter.

Where I had difficulties with the book was more with the execution of the language. Unfortunately, I learnt early in the book that the author was known for writing on the Gospel-centred movement, which meant that this particular phrase was included on nearly every page of the page, with some of the last chapters utilizing the words of Gospel-centredness in some manner in nearly every paragraph. I'm sad to say that with the repetition, the phrase quickly lost meaning for me and made the sentences tedious to read when encountering it as frequently as I did. I recognize that it may be a minor point of issue with the book as a whole; however, it drastically affected readability of the text. For those who are affiliated with The Gospel Coalition and the previous Young, Restless, and Reformed movement (particularly if you're male), you may find greater value in this book, but I'm afraid that I was not the right audience for this book, even if I did like the main arguments presented against Gospel drift.

Book Summary

  • Format of book: 📖
  • Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
  • Recommendation: 👍 if you come from The Gospel Coalition, etc. world, otherwise, there may be other resources that aren't as TGC-centric

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Comments

  1. JocelynApril 1, 2025 at 12:18 AM

    The repetition would drive me crazy...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christian ShelvesApril 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM

      It all made sense when I looked at the author's previous works, but it was a lot!

      Delete

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